Migrant Workers In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath

John Steinbeck describes the plight of displaced migrant workers in the US in a book he wrote in 1939 as a contemporary observer. These migrants were Midwestern American farmers who lost their property to banks because of the “Dust Bowl” in the 1930’s. To survive they had no choice but to hit the road and try to get to California, where farms were fruitful and workers were welcome. Steinbeck was a Californian and saw firsthand the bitter circumstances in which migrant families lived. His aim as a writer and journalist was to bring the issue to the awareness of the general American public. The book is categorized in the genre Realism or Naturalism because of his factual yet empathetic depiction of the characters and their story. The “Dust Bowl” was the name given to the region of the Great Plains in the US that was struck by a combination of

Yet the working conditions and the camps in which the migrant families found a place to live were far from the idea the Oakies had. Not a single person was ready to hear the truth about the real situation in California. Migrants were so desperate that reaching it was their only hope. Even if warned, Oakies would not and could not listen. "I tried to tell you fellas," he said. "Somepin it took me a year to find out. Took two kids dead, took my wife dead to show me. But I can’t tell you. I should of knew that. Nobody couldn’t tell me, neither. " (page 203) People will cling to every shred of hope as long as they think they still have the possibility of creating a better future for themselves and their loved ones. Steinbeck was an eyewitness to the dire living conditions of many migrants because he lived in the Salinas Valley in California where many thousands of migrants arrived. His portrayal of their condition is realistic and touching in its